Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading. Kids with dyslexia have trouble reading accurately and fluently. They may also have trouble with reading comprehension, spelling, and writing.

2. what is dyslexia ?
disorder that involves difficulty reading due
to problems identifying speech sounds and
learning how they relate to letters and words
(decoding).
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in
reading. Kids with dyslexia have trouble
reading accurately and fluently. They may
also have trouble with reading
comprehension, spelling, and writing.

3. w h a t i s d y s l e x i a
?
Kids with dyslexia have the same risk of vision problems as kids without dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a language-based learning issue, not a problem with the eyes.
Eye and vision problems don’t cause dyslexia, but they can co-occur in the
same child.
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Kids with dyslexia may have trouble answering questions about something
they’ve read. But when it’s read to them, they may have no difficulty at all.

4. w h a t i s d y s l e x i a ?
Dyslexia is the most common learning disability.
1 in 5 people suffer from dyslexia.
Nearly the same percentage of males and females have dyslexia.
Dyslexics do not “see” words backwards. The “b-d” letter reversal for example
is mainly caused by deficits in interpreting left and right.

5. Dyslexia
Signs & Symptoms

6. Dyslexia Signs and Symptoms
Signs of dyslexia can look different at different ages. Here are some examples
of signs of dyslexia:
Preschool
Late talking
Struggles with taking away the beginning sound from a word
Struggles with learning new words
Has trouble recognizing letters and matching them to sounds
Problems remembering or naming letters, numbers and colors
Difficulty learning nursery rhymes or playing rhyming games
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7. D y slexia S i g n s a n d
S y mptoms
School age
Reading well below the expected level for age
Problems processing and understanding what he or she hears
Difficulty finding the right word or forming answers to questions
Problems remembering the sequence of things
Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in
letters and words
Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word
Avoiding activities that involve reading
Often skips over small words when reading aloud
Strongly prefers multiple-choice questions over fill-in-the-blank or short answer
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8. D y slexia S i g n s a n d
S y mptoms
Teens and adults
Difficulty reading, including reading aloud
Slow and labor-intensive reading and writing
Problems spelling
Avoiding activities that involve reading
Mispronouncing names or words, or problems retrieving words
Difficulty summarizing a story
Trouble learning a foreign language
Difficulty memorizing
Difficulty doing math problems
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9. Causes of
Dyslexia

10. Causes of Dyslexia
Dyslexia tends to run in families.
It appears to be linked to certain
genes that affect how the brain
processes reading and language,
as well as risk factors in the
environment.

11. Causes of Dyslexia
Risk factors
Dyslexia risk factors include:
• A family history of dyslexia or other learning disabilities
• Premature birth or low birth weight
• Exposure during pregnancy to nicotine, drugs, alcohol or infection that
may alter brain development in the fetus
• Individual differences in the parts of the brain that enable reading

15. Testing &
Evaluation

16. Why is evaluation important?
An evaluation is the process of gathering information to identify
the factors contributing to a student’s difficulty with learning to
read and spell.
First, information is gathered from parents and teachers to
understand development and the educational opportunities that
have been provided.
Then, tests are given to identify strengths and weaknesses that
lead to a diagnosis and a tentative road map for intervention.

17. What should be included in the evaluation?
The following areas should be considered when carrying out an
evaluation.
Background information
Information from parents and teachers tells us a lot about a
student’s overall development and pattern of strengths and
weaknesses.
Intelligence
an intelligence test was considered to be a necessary part of the
evaluation because the diagnosis of a learning disability was based
on finding a significant difference between IQ and reading skill.

18. What should be included in the evaluation?
Oral language skills
Oral language, simply stated, refers to our ability to listen to and
understand speech as well as to express our thoughts through
speech.
Word recognition
Tests of word recognition require that students read individual
words printed in a list.
Decoding
Decoding is the ability to read unfamiliar words by using letter-
sound knowledge, spelling patterns and chunking the word into
smaller parts, such as syllables.

19. What should be included in the evaluation?
Spelling
Tests of spelling measure the student’s ability to spell individual
words from memory using their knowledge of.
Phonological processing
students with dyslexia have difficulty with identifying,
pronouncing, or recalling sounds. Tests of phonological processing
focus on these skills.
Automaticity/fluency skills
Students with dyslexia often have a slow speed of processing
information (visual or auditory).

20. Outcomes of an evaluation
An evaluation should result in a written report. This report should
detail the kinds of information collected. This includes information
related to the family literacy history, any significant medical issues
the child may have, prenatal and birth conditions, and preschool
development, including language learning.
Diagnosis
A diagnosis of dyslexia begins with the gathering of information
gained from interviews, observations and testing.
Intervention planning
Finally, the report should identify instructional programs that
appear to be appropriate in meeting the specific skill(s) gaps and
weaknesses identified through the evaluation process.